Workplace Equality Index - Stonewall benchmarking

Stonewall is the leading UK charity for gay, lesbian and bisexual men and women (but not transgender people) which was founded in 1989.

Diversity Champions - Best Practice in Sexual Orientation

Stonewall UK estabished the Diversity Champions Programme in 2001 as a good practice forum in which employers can work with Stonewall, and each other on sexual orientation issues. It has grown from 125 member organisations from public, private and voluntary sectors in 2005 to over 600 by the end of 2010. The various parts of the Ministry of Defence and services have progressively joined the programme since 2003:

MOD: 2003
Royal Navy & Royal Marines: Feb 05
Royal Air Force: Dec 06
MOD Police and Guarding Agency: 2007
British Army: Jul 08 (400th member organisation)

Despite media reports to the contrary, the annual cost of an organisation being a Diversity Champion is only £2000. The benefits to an organisation of benchmarking, exchanging best practice, and being associated with a strong visible sign of a commitment to equality and an inclusive diversity climate in the workplace should be obvious.

Workplace Equality Index and Rankings

The Workplace Equality Index is Stonewall's comprehensive annual benchmarking exercise that showcases Britain's top employers for lesbian, gay and bisexual staff. It is free to enter and open to all employers, not just Diversity Champions. The Workplace Equality Index (WEI) Was first run in 2005. Invitations to participate were extended to 1,630 of the largest UK employers. 136 participated in the first year, including the Ministry of Defence. The Royal Navy and Royal Marines joined the programme in Feb 05 and were therefore able to participate in the 2006 for the first time, joined in 2008 results by the Royal Air Force and MOD Police and Guards Agency and finally by the Army in the 2009 results.

Responses from members organisations to the questionnaire by a September deadline, preliminary and final results and report are published in the New Year; hence the 2011 WEI would be published in Jan 11 on the basis of the survey responses from Sep 10.

In the 2010 survey, the MOD came 73rd and MDPGA 70th; the three armed services were not placed in the top 100 organisations. A full table of results and rankings for MOD, MDPGA, RN, Army and RAF will be added in due course.

It should be noted that, although the military organisations have on the whole dropped out of the top 100 Diversity Champions, their overall percentage scores have held up and indeed improved. It is only due to the increase in competition to improve from over 600 organisations - as opposed to only 136 in 2005 - that the military have moved down the rankings even though their scores have increased.

Full report and results from previous Workplace Equality Index years

2010 - http://www.stonewall.org.uk/documents/final_wei_2010_booklet_1.pdf

2009 - http://www.stonewall.org.uk/other/startdownload.asp?openType=forced&documentID=1633

2008 - http://www.stonewall.org.uk/other/startdownload.asp?openType=forced&documentID=1797

2007 - http://www.stonewall.org.uk/other/startdownload.asp?openType=forced&documentID=1795

2006 - http://www.stonewall.org.uk/other/startdownload.asp?openType=forced&documentID=1796